


Foiltopia

by MecchanOtaku



Category: Miitopia (Video Game)
Genre: Other, contains massive spoilers for Miitopia so maybe play the game before reading this?, sort of a novelisation???, this story is just a huge OC fest, unless you don't want to play the game in which case go nuts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-27 23:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 14,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14436903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MecchanOtaku/pseuds/MecchanOtaku
Summary: In a time of great need, a hero by the name of Mecchan heads forth to stop the Dark Lord Mecchi from stealing faces. With the friends and allies she makes on the way, will she put an end to the Dark Lord's terror?





	1. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, this basically follows my playthrough of Miitopia. I filled the game with a lot of my OCs and I may or may not have ended up shipping my self-insert with one of my OCs as a result. I sincerely hope this doesn't put too many people off my story.

Miitopia is a peaceful place. Well, it was, anyway.

Out of nowhere, there have been multiple cases of missing faces in many places.

What happened to those faces, you may ask? Well, some unspeakable foe took them from people all across Miitopia, and to make matters worse, stuck them on monsters she created!

But a small glimmer of hope shines through, in the form of a simple, airheaded, yet optimistic traveller that goes by the name of Mecchan.

This is Mecchan’s story.

Mecchan yawned and stretched, enjoying the lovely weather.

“Another peaceful day.” she mused. She was just minding her own business, wandering wherever the wind took her.

It looked like she was in some sort of grassland area. Butterflies were flying about everywhere. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, everything was good about today.

As soon as she looked up at the sky, however, she noticed a pair of eyes floating about, seemingly out of nowhere.

She stared at the eyes, looking very bewildered as they danced around this adorable butterfly, and then… jumped straight onto it?

Suddenly, the butterfly started looking directly towards Mecchan. As it got closer to her, it started shrieking.

Mecchan realised this butterfly was now looking for a fight, so she ran away as fast as her legs could carry her.

“What the heck happened? Last time I checked, butterflies don’t shriek and try to fight you!” Mecchan said to herself.

Eventually, she lost the butterfly.

“Phew! Thank goodness that’s over! But where the heck am I?” Mecchan looked around.

She then spotted a town a short distance away. She ran towards it.

“Greenhorne Town, huh?” she read the sign at the entrance and went in.

The town was populated by… quite a strange bunch.

Mecchan immediately ran over to the carefree guide near the entrance. He… looked really out of touch with the times. He wore shades, had a ridiculous afro and had a mustache in the shape of a musical note.

“Hm, today’s pretty… boring, huh.” he said, looking bored. He then noticed Mecchan. “Huh?”

Mecchan was obviously panicking.

“What’s up with you?” the guide asked.

“W-well, there was this butterfly, and a pair of eyes flew on it and it started acting like it wanted to fight me!” Mecchan blurted out rapidly.

The guide stared at Mecchan and then started laughing. “That’s a good one! I never took you to be the comedian type!”

Mecchan sighed. Of course he wouldn’t believe her…

“Greenhorne’s a chill place, where all the cool cats can just forget their troubles.” he told Mecchan.

Mecchan decided to ask someone else if they knew anything about this, but it didn’t look like anyone really cared.

Mecchan then ended up finding the mayor of the town. Maybe he would take this whole thing a bit more seriously than the others?

Mecchan approached the mayor.

“Ah, welcome, traveller!” He greeted her enthusiastically. “I’m the mayor of this town. Isn’t it a nice place? I take it you’ve spoken to all the people here?”

“Yes, I have.” Mecchan said. “They’re definitely… interesting.”

Suddenly, a loud gust of wind roared through the town.

“Huh?” the mayor said, looking up at the sky. Mecchan did the same.

Everyone looked shocked at what was going on, but only the mayor really seemed to know what was about to happen.

“Ah! I know what’s coming!” he shouted. “It’s the Dark Lord! She’s here to steal our…”

All of a sudden, a the sky went black and out of a purple mist appeared a demonic-looking woman with a face eerily similar to Mecchan’s. Except it wasn’t exact. Her eyebrows were black instead of brown and her eyes were still very dull, but they looked more brown than blue.

The woman then laughed, much like how a supervillain would. 

“I am the Dark Lord, Mecchi!” she introduced herself. “Congratulations! You have just won the chance to have your days completely ruined!”

Everyone in the town started shaking in fear, despite never having even heard of her.

“Now, I’ll just take those faces of yours and I’ll be on my way!” Mecchi grinned, as she waved her hands, and just like that…

A good portion of Greenhorne Town’s faces were gone!

“Oh no! Their faces…” the mayor shivered.

Mecchi looked at her handiwork. 

“This looks good!” she muttered to herself. She then turned to face the town. “Now you faceless freaks can get used to this kind of life from now on!”

She then pointed to the people that still had their faces. “Oh, and the rest of you can take a good long look at your friends! Yeah, sucks to see them like this, doesn’t it?” she grinned.

“Well, goodbye for now!” she shouted, disappearing into a puff of purple smoke.

Mecchan looked around town. Everyone was shivering in fear, even the mayor.

She then saw that worried looking grandpa and went over to talk to him.

He was even more worried than before. His granddaughter’s face had been taken, so Mecchan could see why.

“Oh! Miss adventurer!” he shouted as soon as he saw Mecchan. “You look like a very brave girl, so please! Get Penny’s face back for me!”

Mecchan nodded her head. “I… I’ll try.” she smiled.

“Oh, thank you!” the man sighed in relief. “I know! It’s not much, but please take this amulet! It’s kind of our family’s good luck charm!”

He then pulled an amulet out of his pockets and gave it to Mecchan.

“The Dark Lord should still be nearby. Could you look outside town for her?” the man asked Mecchan.

Mecchan nodded and then head straight off.

—

After a while of searching, she suddenly found herself meeting with the Dark Lord Mecchi again.

Mecchi noticed this traveller following her and laughed at her. “Aww, are you trying to be a hero and stop me? That’s cute.”

Mecchan then glared at Mecchi.

“Give Penny’s face back!” she demanded.

“You mean this?” Mecchi pulled Penny’s face out of thin air. “Hm, I’ll give this one back on one condition.”

Mecchi then summoned a yellow slime monster. “If you can beat this thing in a fight, the face will be returned.” Mecchi then smirked at Mecchan. “But look at you! You don’t even have a weapon!”

The face zoomed onto the slime’s body and suddenly the slime had a brand new face!

Mecchi laughed again. “Well, see ya! If you survive, that is…” she said, vanishing in a puff of purple smoke again.

Mecchan froze. She had no idea what to do. Mecchi was right! She didn’t even have a weapon! There was no way she could win against this!

The slime prepared an attack. Mecchan thought to herself… This is it. I’m done for, aren’t I?

Suddenly, the amulet started glowing! Mecchan could only stare at it as the world got lighter and lighter…

Mecchan suddenly found herself in a very… divine-looking realm.

“Mecchan… can you hear me?” A woman’s voice called out. All Mecchan could do at that point was nod.

“It’s a good thing I showed up right in the nick of time, isn’t it?” the voice laughed. “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Kurie, the guardian goddess of Miitopia.”

Mecchan looked shocked. “A… goddess?” she asked.

“Yes.” Kurie said. “Anyway, it looks like you’re in not a very good spot right now, but I can help you out here. Do you accept my help?”

Mecchan nodded. It’s not like she had much of a choice at this point.

“Brilliant! I shall now bestow some divine powers onto you!” Kurie exclaimed, bringing up a list of jobs that looked a lot like RPG classes over to Mecchan. “Which of these sounds best suited for you?”

Mecchan glanced at the list. Warrior, Mage, Cleric, Thief, Pop Star or Chef… Out of all these jobs the one that sounded best for her was…

“Warrior.” Mecchan stated. “I choose Warrior.”

“Excellent!” Kurie exclaimed.

Mecchan was suddenly enveloped in a godly light. When she opened her eyes again, she was dressed in a suit of armour and holding a sword.

“Whoa…” Mecchan looked at herself.

Kurie laughed a little. “Well, I think you should be able to take that slime down no problem now! Fight on, brave warrior Mecchan!”

Mecchan then found herself back in the field. She wondered if any of what just happened was real, then realised she was still wearing the warrior armour!

“Okay…” Mecchan stared at the slime with Penny’s face. “Here goes nothing!”

And so, Mecchan’s first battle began! Mecchan didn’t really know how to do much, but one thing she definitely did know how to do was hit things with her sword, so she did exactly that.

The Penny slime then attacked back. It hurt, but it probably would have hurt a lot more if it wasn’t for Mecchan’s armour.

Mecchan then attacked again, and this time she managed to take the slime down! That was fast!

As the slime disappeared, Penny’s face flew off and made its way back to Greenhorne Town.

Mecchan smiled. She did it!

Suddenly, she heard Kurie speaking to her again.

“Good job, Mecchan! And in just two hits, too!” Kurie sounded proud.

“Thank you!” Mecchan said. “If it hadn’t been for you, I’d be a goner!”

“Now Penny should be safe.” Kurie stated. “Hurry back to Greenhorne Town and see if she’s alright!”

“Okay!” Mecchan nodded, running back to Greenhorne Town.

When Mecchan got back to Greenhorne, she saw Penny’s face get back onto its rightful owner. Penny looked very happy with this.

“Penny!” Penny’s grandpa came rushing over as soon as Penny got her face back. “Are you okay, Penny?”

Penny smiled. “I’m fine, grandpa! You worry too much, you know!”

Penny and her grandpa looked at Mecchan. “We can’t thank you enough for saving Penny’s face there! We must reward you!”

Penny’s grandpa then gave Mecchan some gold. Nice!

All of a sudden, Kurie started speaking to Mecchan again. 

“Yes! You’ve done it!” she exclaimed. “Hey, Mecchan. If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a favour.”

Mecchan looked confused. “What kind of favour?”

“Well, you’ve seen what sort of things Mecchi does, right? Causing havoc, stealing faces, all that jazz?” Kurie said.

“Yeah.” Mecchan looked a little cross.

“So I was thinking: Would you like to save Miitopia and defeat this vile Dark Lord?” Kurie asked Mecchan.

Mecchan thought about this for a moment. Could she do it? Well, she was able to fight off that slime in just two hits…

“Okay! I’ll do it!” Mecchan shouted.

“That’s the spirit!” Kurie said happily. “Keep at it and these powers should eventually be enough to beat Mecchi! Now get out there and show her what you’re made of!”

“Okay!” Mecchan exclaimed.

And so begins Mecchan’s journey…


	2. New Faces, Same Places

Mecchan walked out of Greenhorne Town and set off to find the faces. She had learned from Penny’s grandfather, who was called Dr. Crygor, all the townspeople’s names.

As Mecchan ran off to search for the faces, Dr. Crygor looked at her.

“Will she be alright on her own? Do you think we should have asked her to join her?” He muttered to himself. “She probably would have said no… She’s very timid. Come to think of it, where is she?”

After a while of searching and fighting monsters, Mecchan suddenly found herself in a spot of trouble. Two butterflies came. That’s one to attack from the front, one from behind!

“I… I don’t think I can do this!” Mecchan shouted.

“Two at once, huh? That can’t be good. Don’t worry, though. Help is on the way.” Kurie called out. “With my divine power, I shall find the nearest adventurer and bring her to you!”

A white light flashed a short distance away from the butterflies. Emerging from the light was… a timid-looking girl with long, black hair, wearing a frilly dress and a hair ribbon.

“Wh-what?! H-how did I get…” The girl looked around and saw Mecchan being attacked by butterflies. “Ah! D-don’t worry! I’ll help!”

The girl then ran over to Mecchan and swung her mic at a butterfly.

“Thanks, uh…” Mecchan said, giving the girl some space to introduce herself before the battle began.

“Oh! Uh… Melody.” the girl blurted out. “I… I’m not too strong, but I feel like if we work together, maybe…”

Mecchan nodded, and prepared to help take these butterflies down.

Mecchan dealt heavy damage to the butterfly on the right with a simple swing of her sword and Melody finished it off with a swing of her mic, which also hit the butterfly on the left.

“Okay, uh, I think one more attack should do it…” Melody murmured.

The butterfly on the left then went straight for Melody, dealing more damage than it would have dealt to Mecchan. Well, she was wearing a frilly dress.

“Okay! Here goes!” Mecchan ran at the butterfly, then slashed through it with her sword, finishing it off.

“Yeah! We did it!” Mecchan shouted excitedly. She then turned to face Melody. “Thanks for the help!”

Melody smiled. “Y-yeah…” Wow. Fighting monsters was a lot easier with more people.

“Thanks to you, I can get back to getting back the townspeople’s faces!” Mecchan exclaimed. “Then I can start preparing to fight the Dark Lord!”

“Um…” Melody tapped Mecchan on the shoulder. “I was just thinking… we did really good in that battle… Could I maybe… join you?” she asked shyly.

“Sure!” Mecchan nodded her head. “The more the merrier, right?”

“Right…” Melody smiled sheepishly.

“Great! You’re both already making out to be a great team!” Kurie called out from the amulet. “You girls better get along! The stronger your friendship, the stronger you’ll be in battle! Seeya!”

After a while of searching, Mecchan and Melody became completely exhausted.  
“I’m so tired…” Mecchan sighed.

“Glad I’m not the only one…” Melody yawned.

Suddenly, Mecchan spotted an inn in the distance. “Melody! I think there’s an inn up there! We can rest there!”

Melody looked ahead and saw the inn too. “Oh, thank goodness!” she sighed in relief.

As the two got to the inn and chose a room, Kurie watched from her divine realm and thought for a moment.

“I think I’ll do something with this inn.” Kurie said to herself and used her godly powers to duplicate the inn and place it all over Miitopia.

“There! Now they can find places to rest a lot easier.” Kurie smiled.

Mecchan and Melody slept peacefully through the night.

The next morning, the girls had breakfast and decided to head out to find the Greenhorne residents’ faces.

“So, you know the people in Greenhorne?” Mecchan asked Melody.

“Y-yes, they’re my friends…” Melody said. “So the Dark Lord took their faces?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I already saved Penny’s face, so it’s just Jimmy T, Dribble, Ashley and Mona left.” Mecchan answered. “I’m glad I happened to team up with someone who knows them, huh?”

“Y-yeah, I… kinda feel bad for not being there to help them when the Dark Lord took their faces, though…” Melody murmured.

“Hey, it’s okay! Because we’re gonna save their faces together!” Mecchan smiled.

“Yeah…” Melody smiled back.

After a while of walking, they found a floating face with sunglasses and a musical note mustache.

“Hey! That looks like…” Mecchan started to say, but was interrupted by a giant butterfly appearing out of nowhere and the face flying onto the butterfly.

“Oh no! Jimmy!” Melody shouted. “So, if we beat the monster, his face will fly back to Greenhorne, right?”

Mecchan nodded her head. “That’s right! We can do this!”

After Mecchan attacked the butterfly once, Melody decided that she needed to make absolutely sure her next attack would be strong enough.

“J-just wait a second!” Melody said, doing some simple warm-ups.

“Melody… I hope you know what you’re doing.” Mecchan sighed. “Because I sure don’t!”

After taking a more powerful hit from the butterfly, Mecchan attacked it again and hoped Melody’s next attack would be good enough.

Melody then finished her warm-ups and swung her mic at the butterfly, dealing heavy damage. It looked like just one more hit would finish it off.

The butterfly then hit Melody as hard as it could.

Mecchan then delivered the final blow and the butterfly was defeated. Jimmy T’s face then flew back to Greenhorne.

“W-we did it…” Melody smiled.

“Let’s go back to the inn. I’m exhausted!” Mecchan sighed.

“Okay.” Melody said, heading straight for the inn. “It is getting late…”

The next morning, Mecchan and Melody were woken up by the sound of the doorbell ringing.

“Excuse me? Is this the inn where I can find someone called Mecchan?” a girl’s voice called out. “A mysterious voice told me she could use my help.”

Mecchan stared at her amulet, having a good feeling who this girl was referring to.

“Oh, yes. I thought beating the Dark Lord would be hard with just two of you, so I called a new team member to you.” Kurie’s voice spoke from the amulet.

“Okay, that is a good idea. Thank you, Kurie!” Mecchan smiled.

She then went downstairs. Melody followed.

“Okay, who is this new team member?” Mecchan wondered as she opened the door.

She then spotted a girl with chin-length black hair wearing some white vestments and holding a stick at the door.

“Hello, there! A warrior… you must be Mecchan! I’m Yuki. I’m a cleric.” the girl smiled. “The mysterious voice told me you needed some help, so I came quite a long way just to join you!”

“Nice to meet you, Yuki!” Mecchan smiled.

“Be nice to Yuki, she travelled two towns just to get here.” Kurie called from the lamp. “But… where’s… Ah, nevermind! I’m sure she’ll show up sooner or later! For now, you’re a party of three!”

“Okay?” Mecchan looked confused. Wonder what that was about…

As Mecchan wandered through the Easin Hills, she eventually came across… the Dark Lord? Already?

“Oh! Look who dropped by!” Mecchi chuckled. “Aren’t I lucky to see you again!”

“Mecchi!” Mecchan stood up bravely. “I’m going to defeat you! You’ll see!”

Mecchi then suddenly burst into fits of laughter. “Oh my god, you’re serious? This is priceless! Okay then, how’s this for defeat?”

Mecchi then prepared a powerful dark attack. Suddenly, Mecchan realised she was not ready. Her legs turned to jelly. This was it. She was going to die.

“STOP!” a voice called from behind Mecchan. Instantly afterwards, a man with white hair and eyes in a white hooded coat was standing right in front of her. He then raised his magic staff and stopped the dark attack with a magic attack.

“Wh-what the…” Mecchi stammered in disbelief.

“So… you’re the Dark Lord… everyone’s been talking about you…” the man said. “First stealing faces, now attacking people? I won’t stand for it!”

Mecchi looked… frightened of this man for some reason. "W-well, don’t think this is the last time we’ll be seeing each other, little miss hero! And that annoying wizard too!”

Mecchi then vanished into a puff of purple smoke again.

Mecchan collapsed to her knees. “I… I almost got killed… what was I thinking?”

The wizard then reached out his hand. “Are you alright?”

Mecchan looked up. That wizard… he just saved her life! She grabbed his hand and got up.

“Th-thanks…” Why was Mecchan so shy all of a sudden?

“How do you do? My name is Albanus, though most people just call me the Great Sage. I’m a travelling wizard.” the wizard said.

“I… I’m Mecchan.” Mecchan replied.

“The Dark Lord… it seems like she knows you. Can I ask why?” Albanus asked Mecchan.

“Well…” Mecchan then explained her story to Albanus.

“Interesting… you’re on a quest to defeat the Dark Lord?” Albanus said, looking very surprised.

“Yeah, but… you saw how things went there. She would have killed me if you hadn’t shown up. I…” Mecchan went on, looking upset.

“You feel you’re not strong enough?” Albanus then put his hand on her shoulder. “I sense an unusual power in you, Mecchan. It might not be much right now, but as you keep going on, I feel like it’ll get stronger until you’re ready to beat the Dark Lord. Just keep going, I know you can do it.”

“O… okay…” Mecchan blushed at Albanus’ kind words.

“I must head off, but if luck is on our side, we’ll meet again.” Albanus smiled and waved.

As Albanus walked in the opposite direction, Mecchan stared at him for a while. He was… so cool…

“Mecchan! Are you alright?” Melody called out as she ran over to Mecchan.

“Don’t just run off without us…” Yuki huffed, following Melody.

“I-I’m fine.” Mecchan said.

“Hey, who was that man in the white coat walking past us?” Melody asked.

Mecchan blushed at the mention of him. “He… said his name was Albanus. He’s some travelling sage of some sort and he… he just saved me.”

Yuki looked at Mecchan and gave a wide smile. “Well, it’s getting late and me and Melody have been training, so… how about we just head for an inn and call it a night?”

“Yeah, good idea.” Mecchan sighed.


	3. Berry nice!

The following morning, Mecchan was awoken by another ring of the doorbell.  
“Ah, looks like she’s finally here!” Kurie’s voice said.

“Who’s finally here?” Mecchan asked, still half-asleep.

“Another party member! This should definitely be enough!” Kurie stated.

“You called another one?” Mecchan asked.

“I called her along with Yuki. I wonder what took the girl so long. It doesn’t matter. Now you’ve got enough party members for a full team!” Kurie cheered.

“Okay, let’s see who this girl is.” Mecchan said, opening the door.

“Oh! Sorry!” a high-pitched voice exclaimed. “Are you Mecchan?”

Mecchan looked in front of her and found that she was talking to a girl with red skin and a strawberry for a head with green eyes wearing a robe. To say Mecchan was speechless would be an understatement.

Mecchan nodded her head awkwardly.

“Oh good! I’m so glad I finally managed to find my way to you guys!” the girl huffed. “My name’s Strawberry! That’ll be easy to remember, right?”

Mecchan nodded again. “Yeah…” This girl was an actual strawberry. Mecchan was talking to a strawberry.

“I’ll be joining you for your mission!” Strawberry smiled. “In case you couldn’t tell by the robe and wand, I’m a mage. I get my magic from the jam I shoot out of my hands!”

“So… you’re a mage that gets her magic from… jam?” Mecchan had to ask to make sure she wasn’t hearing things.

“Yes! Exactly!” Strawberry said.

“Well, uh, thank you. We’ll be glad to have you on the team.” Mecchan said. It probably wouldn’t be as awkward once they get used to the fact that she’s a strawberry, right?

—

After Strawberry was properly introduced, Mecchan and her team set off to the Strange Grove.

“I think the face I saw go over here was Mona’s… I hope we can save it. Mona is one of my closest friends.” Melody sighed.

Before too long, the team found Mona’s face shortly before it attached itself to a mouse.

“Mona Mouse, huh? Why does that sound so funny to me?” Mecchan chuckled.  
Strawberry cast a fire spell at the mouse before realising she was way too weak to do any significant damage.

“O-oh no… I should have trained…” Strawberry started shaking.

The mouse noticed this and immediately started going directly for Strawberry. Strawberry thought she was done for at this point, but then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw…

“Yuki?”

Yuki stepped in the way and took the damage that was meant for Strawberry.

“Y-Yuki… Are you alright?” Strawberry asked Yuki, looking very concerned.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Yuki smiled.

“Th-thank you…” Strawberry started to tear up.

The mouse then went straight for Mecchan and Melody, dealing a lot of damage to them.

“Are you two alright?” Yuki raised the stick she was holding above her head and cast a healing spell on her teammates.

After the others did enough damage to the mouse, Strawberry decided to try her fire spell again… but she was out of magic power! She reached into her pocket to find a special candy that will give her more power, but it wasn’t there!

Yuki noticed this and placed a candy in Strawberry’s hand. “It’s okay, you can have mine.” Yuki smiled.

“Wow, Yuki sure stole the spotlight for this battle.” Mecchan mumbled in awe.

Strawberry then cast the fire spell at the mouse and actually beat it this time.

“You did it, Strawberry!” Melody smiled.

“And this was just your first day!” Mecchan cheered.

“I… I did it!” Strawberry exclaimed. She didn’t want to admit it, but she felt pretty proud of herself.

—

The next day, the team decided to split up. Mecchan and Yuki would find Dribble’s face and Melody and Strawberry would find Ashley’s face.

After going through a long and tedious cave, Mecchan and Yuki managed to find a small section of the castle walls.

“Wow… this is the castle… Amazing…” Mecchan stared in awe.

“It is, isn’t it?” Yuki smiled. Her smile then shifted to a worried frown. “Uh… Mecchan…”

Yuki pointed to a figure in the sky.

“Oh, not you again!” Mecchan shouted.

“Really? You guys are still at it. It’s honestly not even worth trying to kill you this time.” Mecchi facepalmed. Then she snapped her fingers as an imp appeared with Dribble’s face. “So I’m going to have this guy do it instead! Seeya! I have some business to attend to at the castle!”

“Hey, get back here!” Mecchan yelled. “Great. Now we have to get Dribble’s face back before he kills us!”

“Yes.” Yuki nodded. “Don’t worry. Hit him with all you’ve got and I’ll heal you when you need it!”

—

After they did just that, Mecchan decided to head back to see how Melody and Strawberry were doing. When they finally met them, they had already finished getting Ashley’s face back.

“Mecchi’s going to the castle! We have to head over there immediately!” Mecchan shouted.

“R-right… Just… after we’ve had some rest first…” Melody murmured.

“Good idea. We can’t head there all worn out.” Yuki nodded.

And they all went back to the inn. Tomorrow, they would make their way to the castle to find out what Mecchi’s plans there were.


	4. To the castle!

After a good night’s sleep, Mecchan and her friends set out to Greenhorne Castle.

“Do any of you know what the king’s like here?” Mecchan asked.  
“He’s a king, but… he doesn’t really do a whole lot. Seems ‘King’ is a title in name only.” Melody explained.

“Really?” Strawberry asked. “Why would this place even have a king then?”  
Melody then sighed. “Who knows. There’s a rumour going around that he even got a friend of his to be the princess for some reason." 

"That is strange.” Mecchan said. “Oh well, let’s see these two for ourselves.”

—

After arriving at the castle, Mecchan and her friends saw the king right there, large and in-charge.

“Oh? And who might you all be?” He asked, with a laidback tone to his voice.

“I’m Mecchan and these are my friends!” Mecchan said. “I have to warn you that the Dark Lord Mecchi is going to do something!”

“Dark Lord Mecchi, huh? I’ve heard that name before… But it doesn’t look like anything’s happening, so…”

The King was about to say something, but Mecchi showed up and laughed.

“Are you serious? You came all this way and for what? To warn this guy! You’re pathetic!” Mecchi taunted the heroes as she summoned a golem and stuck the newly-stolen king’s face on it.

“Well, if you survive, I have an even bigger surprise later!” Mecchi laughed again as she left.

“Does she always just leave in a puff of smoke?” Melody asked.

“It doesn’t matter! We’ve got a king’s face to save!” Mecchan shouted, hitting the golem with her sword.

After everyone had a turn at hitting the golem, it then quickly turned around and punched Strawberry so hard she was stuck in the ground.

“M-Mecchan! Yuki! Help!” Strawberry started crying.

Yuki’s expression then turned to anger. “That wasn’t very nice!” As she healed Strawberry, Mecchan and Melody managed to get more hits on the golem. Geez, it did that little damage? They were going to be here for a while…

—

After a while of fighting, the golem and the team all looked like they were about to get taken down in one more hit. The golem then used that to his advantage and prepared an attack that would harm the entire party. 

Well… almost all of them. Yuki stepped in front of Strawberry and took the hit for her.

“Yuki!” Strawberry shouted as Yuki, Mecchan and Melody were all knocked out in that last attack. Strawberry was still crying, but she had to make this count so she could somehow save everyone else.

She then shot a fireball out of her wand, thankfully not missing despite her tears and taking the golem down, before passing out from exhaustion.

—

Later on, the team woke up in surprisingly comfortable beds. “Ugh… what happened?” Mecchan groaned. “Did we win?”

“My, my. You’re all awfully light sleepers, aren’t you?” a voice chuckled.

“W-who are…” Melody said as the mysterious person showed herself.  
She was wearing a pink gown and had blue hair and eyes.

“My name is Nepuchun. I guess you could call me the princess of this castle. Thank you all for saving my friend Jupita. He’s back in the food court, stuffing his face as usual.” Nepuchun smiled.

“Well, it’s good knowing we beat that thing and got the king his face back.” Yuki sighed in relief.

“If there’s anything more we can do, we’d love to help. But it’s gonna have to be soon, since we need to find the Dark Lord soon.” Mecchan explained.

“Actually, there is one thing I’d like you to do. I’d like you to go check on a young man named Yuranusu Tennousei. He’s very important to me and I need to know if he’s alright.” Nepuchun said.

“Okay, that should be easy!” Mecchan said. “It’s a good thing our injuries have healed.”


	5. Prepare Uranus

Mecchan, Melody, Strawberry and Yuki head out to see if they could find Yuranusu.

“So all we know about him is he has very narrow eyes, thick eyelashes and mid-length cyan hair.” Mecchan said. “And I think Nepuchun said he often gets mistaken for a girl because of his feminine appearance.”

“Yeah, that sounds very distinct. We’ll probably instantly recognise him once we see him.” Yuki smiled.

—

After a while of searching, the group heard a scream of terror coming from the forest. Immediately after hearing said scream, the group ran into the forest to investigate it. Once they were in, they found a young man of the description Nepuchun gave them right there, surrrounded by monsters.

“P-please don’t hurt me… I just wanted to get some ingredients for tea with Nepuchun…” the man trembled.

Thankfully, the monsters themselves were very weak, so it didn’t take long to take them down.

After the battle, Yuki put her hand on the man’s shoulder. “It’s okay, they’re all gone now.”

“Your name wouldn’t happen to be Yuranusu Tennousei, would it?” Mecchan asked.

The man looked up and nodded his head. “Yes, but… How do you know my name?”

“Princess Nepuchun asked us to check on you to see how you were doing.” Melody explained.

“My diamond is worried about me?” Yuranusu blushed. “I see. Thank you for telling me. I was heading in here to get some calming fruit for our tea, but I can’t find it anywhere. You didn’t happen to come across any by chance?”

“No, we didn’t…” Mecchan said. “But since we’re here now we could help you look for it.”

“Really?” Yuranusu asked, his eyes opening wider than usual. “Thank you! I appreciate it!”

—

After a while of searching, Mecchan and the others sighed. “Doesn’t look like we can find any over here…”

All of a sudden, a familiar voice called from behind the group. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

Mecchan turned around to see Albanus standing right there, holding a basket of calming fruit. “Albanus!”

“Oh, do you two know each other?” Yuranusu asked.

“Uh, not really… but he saved me earlier, so…” Mecchan said awkwardly while blushing.

Yuki then had the stupidest smile on her face upon seeing this.

“I was in here looking for these. You never know when someone could need one.” Albanus said. “They’re known for soothing nerves and calming people down, hence the name.”

He then passed a fruit to each of the people there.

“Wow! You don’t have to give them to all of us!” Strawberry exclaimed.

“Like I said, you never know when you could use them. I advise to keep them until someone’s gotten extremely anxious or angry.” Albanus smiled.

“Thank you, Albanus!” Mecchan exclaimed. “I hope I see you again soon!”  
Albanus smiled and waved goodbye to the group as they left.

—

“Well, that was lucky! We got to meet Albanus again and Yuranusu got his calming fruit!” Mecchan exclaimed, heading back to the castle with the group.

“I hope Nepuchun will be happy with the surprise tea.” Yuranusu smiled.

Upon reaching the castle, however, the group saw a short boy with silver hair and opaque glasses at the door.

“Hey, are you okay?” Mecchan walked over to the boy and he turned around defensively.

“I know what you’re thinking, and no, I’m not a child. I just finished high school.” He snapped.

Wow. Rude.

“Eh, it’s okay. That person right there is Makyari. We were classmates in high school.” Yuranusu explained. “He has a bit of a short temper but he’s not a bad guy.”

“So I’m guessing you’re here to see Nepuchun too?” Strawberry asked.

“And how do you know, anyway?!” Makyari shouted.

“Well, I mean Yuranusu did say you were his classmate, and he knows Nepuchun, so…” Yuki chose her words very carefully.

“Fine, let’s all head in together.” Makyari huffed, opening the door to reveal…

The place was filled with imps!

“What the… how did this happen?” Melody shivered.

“Hm… I’d say the best tactic is to retreat.” Makyari stated.

“But Nepuchun is in there!” Yuranusu shouted.

“Don’t worry, we’ll fight these guys for you!” Mecchan exclaimed, rushing in there with her friends. “Okay, so if these guys are anything like the monster Dribble’s face was put on, this should be easy, right?”

—

This was not easy.

These imps could do one more type of attack. As Yuki prepared to whack one of these things with her stick, it waved its pitchfork around and Yuki’s eyes started to turn completely black except with red irises.

“Yuki?” Strawberry asked her friend, before Yuki quickly tripped her up. “Yuki, why?”

It didn’t stop there, though. The rest of the team, besides Strawberry also got turned evil by the imps’ magic and the team kept getting attacked without doing any damage for a while.

Eventually, an imp took down Yuki in one last hit and Strawberry just snapped.

“You! You! I… I hate you! I hate you! I HATE YOU!!!” She burst into tears and cast one of her most powerful spells, causing an explosion that took out all the imps in the room.

After her attack, she just collapsed to her knees, still sobbing. The others had returned to normal and were rubbing their heads.

“Ugh… what happened there?” Mecchan groaned.

“It looks like the imps are gone…” Melody sighed in relief.

“Ouch..” Yuki got up. “Strawberry? Are you okay?”

Strawberry turned to face her friend. “Y-Yuki?” She then gave her a big hug. “Yuki! Those things! They were awful! They turned you evil and hurt you!”

Yuki then hugged Strawberry back. “There, there. It’s okay now.”

—

After Yuranusu and Makyari head into the castle, they were horrified to discover… Nepuchun’s face had been taken!


	6. Diamond In The Rough

“Ne-Nepuchun? Diamond?” Yuranusu approached Nepuchun carefully, only for her to rush towards him at the sound of his voice. They both shared a hug for a while.

“I don’t understand. What happened to her?” Makyari asked.

“Mecchi. It was Mecchi who did this.” Mecchan said, pure rage in her voice. “Jupita, do you know where Mecchi went?”

Jupita then pointed to a tower in the distance, seen from the window.

“Okay, thank you. Come on, we’re gonna get Nepuchun’s face back!” Mecchan exclaimed.

Yuranusu then immediately ran out the door. He was going to save Nepuchun, even if it killed him!

“Yura… What are you doing, you idiot?!” Makyari shouted. “You’re gonna get killed!”

Mecchan and her team then followed. Hopefully they’d be able to get there in time before anything happened!

—

As the team went up the tower, fighting monsters along the way, they were filled with nothing but pure dread. What if Yuranusu failed? What if Nepuchun couldn’t be saved? What if the monster her face had been put on was powerful enough to kill all of them?

Surely enough, once they reached the top, they found answers to all three questions when they found Yuranusu unconscious next to a huge gorilla with Nepuchun’s face on it.

This was it. They were doomed.

But…

Why did they still want to go ahead?

Makyari was right. This was absolutely insane, but they just went with it anyway.

Mecchan then got ready to attack, but Strawberry interrupted her.

“If you don’t mind…” Strawberry cast some sort of spell. Mecchan then felt her sword getting bigger… and heavier! She then used all her might to swing it at the gorilla, dealing a heavy amount of damage.

After Melody got a few hits on the gorilla, it then delivered a heavy punch towards her, badly hurting her.

“Melody!” Mecchan shouted.

“Hold on a second!” Yuki then cast healing magic on Melody, allowing her to get back to fighting.

After a while, the gorilla started to look worn out.

“Just a few more hits now! We’re almost there!” Mecchan exclaimed.

Strawberry tried to cast another spell, but was completely out of magical energy. Not to mention there were no candies left.

“Oh no…”

The gorilla then punched her in the face, knocking her out.

As a result, the entire team got angry, swiftly delivering an all-out revenge attack, finishing off the gorilla and saving Nepuchun’s face.

—

Yuki cast some magic on Strawberry and Yuranusu, allowing them to get back up.

“Wh… what happened?” Yuranusu asked.

“Don’t worry, we saved Nepuchun’s face. We should really head back to the castle to see how everything is doing.” Yuki explained.

“Y-you’re right!” Yuranusu then dashed to the castle.

“He’s definitely fast, I’ll say that.” Mecchan pointed out.

“Then why didn’t he dodge?” Strawberry asked.

“Maybe he was caught up in the moment?” Yuki suggested.

—

After everyone got to the castle, Nepuchun and Yuranusu were seen hugging again.

“Thank you all. You saved both me and Yuranusu.” Nepuchun smiled.

“I’m just sorry I couldn’t do anything.” Yuranusu sighed.

“The important thing is you tried. That honestly means the world to me.” Nepuchun assured Yuranusu.

“Well, anyway, I think it’s time for me to finally do what I came here to do.” Makyari stretched a grin across his face.

But that grin turned into a shocked open mouth as Yuranusu brought out some tea… and a diamond ring.

“You’ve always been my radiant diamond, so I figured the best way to ask this would be by giving you one of your own. Nepuchun, will you marry me?” Yuranusu asked, holding up the ring.

Nepuchun answered by embracing Yuranusu with tears in her eyes and a joyous smile on her face.

Makyari then stormed off, trying to hide his own tears.

—

After the day was done with, Mecchan and her party went off to the inn to get some well-deserved rest.

…If only they could.

Mecchi sneaked into the inn that night, grabbed Melody, Yuki and Strawberry and went outside, still holding onto Mecchan’s friends.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice what you did. That was one of my greatest monsters. Well, let’s see how you like this!”

Mecchi then cast an unusual spell on the inn before leaving with Mecchan’s friends in a puff of smoke.

—

Mecchan woke up to find her amazing strength had gone. Not only that, her friends were missing!

“What?! What happened?! Where is everyone?!” Mecchan asked in a panic.

“Yeah, about that… Mecchi sneaked into the inn last night, kidnapped your friends and then kinda sealed away your powers.” Kurie’s voice could be heard.

“What?! Why didn’t you do anything?!” Mecchan exclaimed.

“I didn’t want to wake you up. You looked so peaceful sleeping like that… I didn’t have the heart to, sorry.” Kurie confessed.

“Can you at least tell me where she went?” Mecchan sighed.

“To Neksdor. It’s in the east.” Kurie said. “But you’re not going to get very far like that. Thankfully, I noticed your fighting style and got a good idea of what sort of powers you should have for the time being.”

With a flash, Mecchan was now dressed in a scarf, tank top, shorts and a bandanna. She was also holding a knife.

“Whoa! What’s this?” Mecchan asked.

“That would be your new class: The Thief!” Kurie chuckled.

“…Can I call myself a ninja instead? I don’t like the title thief.” Mecchan said.

Kurie laughed. “Yes. Now head out and continue on your quest to defeat Mecchi.”

And so Mecchan headed to Neksdor. She had to find Mecchi, rescue her friends, get her powers back and save all of Miitopia.

…But could she do it alone?


	7. a bunch of dorks show up

Mecchan head out to the arid land of Neksdor. It was really hot. A little too hot. Thank god she was in clothing more fitting for such temperatures.

“Hold on, friends! I’m coming to save you!” Mecchan then charged into a group of monsters.

She found that while she couldn’t take as much hits, she could still hit pretty hard and she could run really fast! So as long as she could dodge the attacks, everything would be fine.

After a few fights with some enemies, she was suddenly ambushed by a group of scorpions. She had no idea what she could do. She’d heard about these guys. One sting could kill her if she wasn’t careful.

All of a sudden, someone came rushing into the fight, screaming as she lit what seemed to be a frying pan on fire and burned the scorpions to death.

“Whoa…” Mecchan looked at the situation in awe as the mysterious woman caught her breath.

“You should be more careful around here, you know.” The woman said to Mecchan. “There are some pretty dangerous monsters here.”

“Thank you. Sorry, I’ll try to be a bit more careful. I just got these new powers, so I guess I got reckless..” Mecchan said, embarrassed by the events that just occurred.

The woman looked at this girl. Didn’t that sound like what Kurie had told her? “Uh, your name wouldn’t happen to be Mecchan, would it?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Mecchan asked.

“If you’re Mecchan then that makes my job a bit easier. Kurie told me about your situation and asked me to help you. Now that I’ve found you, things should be a lot easier.” The woman explained. “I’m Ganko by the way, though most people call me Gan-chan.”

“Nice to meet you. So I’m guessing you’ll be my new party member?” Mecchan asked.

“You’d be correct. Besides, you need someone who can take hits on your side with a class like that.” Gan-chan pointed out. “Come on, let’s go.”

—

After a while of travelling, Mecchan and Gan-chan happened to run into Albanus, who was busy searching for something.

“But I had it! It was in my pocket! Where did it go?”

He looked very worried, so Mecchan approached him. “Albanus? Are you okay?”

Albanus turned to face Mecchan. “Oh, hello. I’d love to chat right now but I’m in a bit of trouble. I think I dropped a golden lamp around here somewhere. It’s absolutely important the lamp doesn’t get found by someone who would use it to release the… uh, anyway, sorry for being so busy!”

Mecchan looked at Albanus. “Hey, if you want, I could help look for it. I’ll give it back as soon as I find it!”

Albanus stared at Mecchan. “Y-you would? Well, okay, but promise if you hear any voices coming from inside, you must not do anything they say, alright?”

“I won’t.” Mecchan stated.

“Good luck.” Albanus smiled, then continued looking for the lamp himself.

—

As the sun set, Mecchan and Gan-chan found an inn to rest in.

“I hope you don’t mind sharing a room with me.” Mecchan said.

“It’s alright, I get it.” Gan-chan stated. “Your previous team got captured and you want us to be close, right? I’ll make sure if anything happens, you won’t be alone.”

“Thanks. You’re pretty nice, you know?” Mecchan smiled.

“What are you talking about? I’m only taking proper safety precautions!” Gan-chan huffed, secretly touched by Mecchan’s words.

It wasn’t long until Mecchan and Gan-chan fell asleep.

—

The next morning, the doorbell rang. “HEY YOU LOSERS! GET UP! YOU GOT A HERO OUTSIDE WAITING TO JOIN!”

Mecchan woke up, then walked downstairs and opened the door. An imp boy was standing outside the door.

“Okay, good. Now that I’m here, I should tell you who I am. I’m Louis, the coolest teammate you’ll ever have!” The boy winked at Mecchan.

“Kurie, did you seriously call this guy over?” Mecchan facepalmed.

“It’s not like I had a lot of time!” Kurie defended her decision.

“Well, I’ll have you on the team, but only because we don’t really have much of a choice.” Mecchan sighed.

“Great! So, let’s head east!” Louis smiled, as the group head out towards Neksdor Town.

—

Makyari was sulking behind a rock. “Why did it have to be the pretty boy and not me? I can be a dependable man… is it because I’m short?! Is that it?!”

A voice then could be heard from a nearby lamp. “Uh… hey… uh… excuse me… I uh… I think I can help you with your problem, uh, but you have to let me out first… please?”

Makyari picked up the lamp. “Really?”

“Yeah, uh… just rub the lamp and I can grant you a wish… uh, if that’s okay, I mean…”

Maykari paused for a moment. Was this really the right choice.

…Oh what the heck! He rubbed the lamp, and released this powerful genie with very big muscles.

“Oh, thank you so much!” He smiled. “It’s great to be out of that crummy lamp for once!”

Makyari cleared his throat. “What about my wish?”

“Oh… uh… about that, uh…” The genie then suddenly flew off into the sky. “Sorry!”

As the genie flew towards Neksdor Town, Makyari became furious. “HEY! COME BACK, YOU FILTHY LIAR!”

Makyari was still mad when Mecchan and her team showed up. He was so mad, he threw the lamp at them and yelled “Go away!” before going back to sulking.

Mecchan picked up the lamp. This had to be the one Albanus told her about, right? She put it in her pocket and head over to Neksdor Town.


	8. Neksdor Neighbours

Reaching Neksdor town, Mecchan and her team were greeted by some… interesting people.

Among the people here, they could see a blonde, green-eyed guide singing and dancing, an old lady with silver hair and perpetually closed eyes, a small, black-haired girl next to some brown-haired man who was probably smoking weed, a girl who looked exactly like the guide in some sort of explorer getup, two children playing a very weird game of house and a grey-haired rich girl looking very annoyed.

Out of curiosity, Mecchan and her team decided to talk to the grey haired girl.

“I can’t believe he had the gall to show up again!” The girl noticed the group walking towards her. “Oh, hello there, strangers.”

“You look annoyed. Is something wrong?” Mecchan asked.

“Well, to tell you the truth, some genie came and stole all my treasure. I earned that during all my adventures…” The girl sighed.

“Well, while we’re here we might as well try to help you get it back.” Gan-chan said.

“You would? Well, thank you. Oh, I’m Griselda, by the way.”

Griselda then told the group everyone’s names. In order of appearance, they were Saffron, Sylvia, Melanie, Bruno, Chloe, Phoenix and Violet.

—

After a while of looking for the genie, the group met up with Albanus again, who was looking a little… off.

“Albanus?” Mecchan walked up to him, looking concerned.

“O-oh! Hello!” Albanus turned to face Mecchan. “Any luck in finding the lamp?”

Mecchan reached into her bag and pulled out the lamp she was carrying. “Is this it?”

“Yes, that’s it.” Albanus said. “But… it looks like the seal has been broken. You haven’t… seen a genie anywhere, have you?”

“Uh, no, but we did hear of one stealing some treasure from a girl named Griselda.” Gan-chan explained.

“Griselda?! Oh no, I… I have to help her!” Albanus exclaimed, rushing further into the desert… before collapsing to the ground.

“Albanus!” Mecchan rushed over to Albanus and turned him over. He looked terrible.

“We’ll have to take him to Neksdor Town. If he knows Griselda, she and maybe the others should be able to help him.” Gan-chan stated.

Mecchan and Gan-chan then put Albanus’ arms around each of their shoulders and carried him to Neksdor Town while Louis led the way.

—

Once they had returned to Neksdor Town, everyone immediately recognised Albanus and rushed over. “What happened?” “Is he okay?” “Albanus, what did you get yourself into this time?”

Before the group could explain, Griselda then walked over to them.

“Mr. Albanus. It’s been a while. Let me guess, he was looking for the thing himself?” she asked.

“Uh, yes…” Mecchan responded, confused.

“Believe it or not, all of us used to be travellers. Albanus is a very kind and selfless man. He has caused the group a fair share of troubles just by stopping to help people out. However, the group isn’t the only thing his selflessness can affect. The poor man puts others’ needs before his own so much he often forgets he even has needs in the first place, and then stuff like this happens.” Griselda explained.

Mecchan looked at Albanus. He really was pushing himself, wasn’t he? She wouldn’t let him do so any more.

“Tell me how to deal with the genie. I won’t let him break himself to do that.” Mecchan said.

“What?! You’re crazy.” Louis exclaimed, before being jabbed in the arm by Gan-chan.

“It’s very simple, actually.” Sylvia chimed in. “Just hold the magic lamp up to the genie and cast the incantation. It’s the genie’s own name, Swoley.”

Louis then burst into a fit of laughter. That was his actual name?!

In the midst of Louis’ laughing fit, Mecchan nodded her head.

“I’ll do my best.” Mecchan then rushed out to find Swoley. The others followed.

“Heh… I know that look on that girl’s face.” Sylvia smiled as she saw Mecchan and her team leave the town. “She may not know it yet, but she really loves Albanus.”


	9. Rough and Buff

“Mecchan! Wait! Slow down!” Louis shouted, running after Mecchan. “You DO remember the guy’s name, right?!”

“How could anyone forget? You spent a good five minutes laughing at it.” Mecchan sighed. “Why are you even bothering to go with us if all you’re gonna do is-”

All of a sudden, the group was interrupted by a screech of terror.

Mecchan and Louis looked behind them.

Gan-chan had managed to run into a Venus Mii Trap, who had begun attempting to eat her.

“Gan-chan!” Mecchan exclaimed, pulling out her knife. “Hang in there, we’re gonna save you!”

A few slashes later, Mecchan realised this was not going to be enough on her own. All of a sudden, however, she felt something sharp against her butt.

She looked behind her. No-one was there. Angered by this, she delivered a much stronger blow to the Mii Trap. With that, Gan-chan managed to escape.

Gan-chan then lit her pan on fire and started repeatedly bashing the Mii Trap with it while screaming, even after it had already given up the face.

“Geez, overkill much?” Mecchan sighed. “At least we beat it. Still have no idea what happened there or what hit me in the butt…”

“Oh, that was me.” Louis smirked.

“What?!” Mecchan shouted, not amused by this at all.

“Hey, it got you to land a better hit, didn’t it?” Louis pointed out. “This is how I do things. I basically make the battle easier by pissing people off.” He then winked. “Or exciting them…”

Mecchan sighed. “I think I’d prefer getting pissed off…”

As it got late, the group went into the nearest inn to get some rest.

—

DING DONG!

Mecchan knew immediately what that meant at this point and ran to the door to open it.

“HELLO, FELLOW HUMAN. I HAVE HEARD THAT YOU ARE IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE ON YOUR QUEST AND I HAVE ARRIVED FOR TWO REASONS: TO HELP YOU AND TO FIND MY NEPHEW, LOUIS.” A… strange woman with a labcoat and glowing green eyes showed up at the door. This woman was DEFINITELY not human.

“Oh, hey, it’s ANAlog. Where have you been?” Louis waved to the woman.

“LOUIS, PLEASE. YOU WERE THE ONE WHO DECIDED SPLITTING UP TO FIND MECCHAN WAS A GOOD IDEA.” ANAlog said to Louis, looking rather annoyed.

“Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Could I… have a word with Mecchan first, though?” Louis asked.

“OF COURSE. IF HE STARTS FLIRTING, DO NOT WORRY. HE DOES THAT TO EVERYONE.” ANAlog pointed out.

Louis and Mecchan went into a room together. Louis sighed. “Okay, so ANAlog is, well… you probably already know, but whatever you do, do not let her know you know that. Play along. Pretend like you think she’s human.”

Mecchan was surprised to see this coming out of Louis of all people. Considering how much of a jerk he’d been since he joined the team.

“Please? She’s my friend.” Louis sighed again, clearly reluctant to admit this but clearly sincere in his words. Maybe he wasn’t so much of a jerk after all…

“Okay, I’ll play along.” Mecchan said.

—

Later, the group had made it into the cave where Swoley was hiding with the treasure.

“Do you think we’ll find Swoley somewhere in here?” Mecchan asked the others.

“Who knows…” Gan-chan sighed. “I searched here because I thought I saw some gold lying around, but…”

“I HAVE LOCATED THIS ‘SWOLEY’. HE IS OVER THERE IN THE CORNER.” ANAlog said, pointing in Swoley’s direction.

“Hey! You!” Mecchan ran over to Swoley, who was very surprised.

“Ah! Wh-what do you want?” Swoley shivered.

“Give Griselda’s gold back or I’ll have to use this!” Mecchan exclaimed, holding up the lamp.

“Ah! B-but there’s no way you know…” Swoley stuttered, tempting fate.

“Swoley!” Mecchan stated the genie’s name, and the lamp started opening up a vortex to suck him inside.

“Ah! AAAAAH! Stop! P-please stop! I’m sorry! I’ll give the gold back! J-just… please don’t… I… I didn’t want…” Swoley shouted, sounding progressively more and more like he was going to cry.

Mecchan realised this and yelled “STOP!”

The lamp stopped sucking Swoley in.

“Why did you do that?!” Louis yelled. “The big brute could have been lying!”

Mecchan went up to a still-crying Swoley.

“Hey… I… I’m sorry. You looked really scared, didn’t you? I… I think I understand now. You don’t WANT to do this, but you’ve felt all your life like you’ve HAD to, right?” she said calmly.

Swoley looked at Mecchan, tears still in his eyes. “Y-yes… That’s right…”

“Well, the good thing is you don’t have to do this. You can find a better way to live your life. And the first step can be apologising to the people you’ve stolen from and returning their stuff.” Mecchan suggested. “I know there will be someone willing to help you sort your life out.”

Swoley dried his tears. “Y-you’re right! I want to live life in a better way! Thank you for giving me the courage to start! I’ll return everything I’ve taken!”

And with that, Swoley made his way back to Neksdor with all the gold he’d stolen.

“Well, that was…” Gan-chan scratched her head.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before…” Louis said, looking awestruck by what happened.

“I BELIEVE THE CORRECT TERM FOR THIS PHEMONENON IS 'EMPATHY’.” ANAlog mused.

Mecchan then turned back to her team. “Come on, let’s head back to Neksdor Town.”

—

Meanwhile, in Neksdor Town.

“I’m really sorry, I thought this would be the only way I could survive but I was wrong. I h-hope you can forgive me.” Swoley apologised to Griselda.

Griselda looked sternly at Swoley, then smiled and nodded. “It’s a good thing you caught me in a good mood.”

Suddenly, everything went dark.

“Oh, that good mood won’t last you very long…”


	10. Scrambled Faces

“I’d better go over to Neksdor Town and see how Albanus is doing…” Mecchan said, heading in the direction for Neksdor Town. The others followed.

Approaching the town, however, Mecchan saw some very familiar shadows. Shadows that looked just like the ones that were cast over Greenhorne Town.

“Oh no.”

—

She immediately ran over to Neksdor Town to see that most of the people there had lost their faces. Even Swoley was faceless!

Mecchan approached one of the few people that still had their faces on them, the old woman near the gate.

“Oh! If it isn’t that lady who rescued Mr. Albanus a while ago.” the old woman said. “Unfortunately, it seems everyone here has lost their faces.”

“What about Albanus? Is he okay?” Mecchan blurted out quickly. She was clearly terrified for him.

But the old woman gave her a reassuring smile.

“He should be fine. He actually left a while ago. He trusted that you’d be able to solve the situation with Swoley.” she explained.

Mecchan thought to herself as she calmed down. Albanus trusted that she’d be able to solve the situation with Swoley… and she had saved a bunch of faces before…

“I’ll help save everyone’s faces! I know I can do this!” Mecchan proclaimed.

“Hold on, you’re not doing this alone!” She was interrupted by Louis of all people, much to her surprise.

“LOUIS IS RIGHT. IF YOU’VE FACED MECCHI’S FACE MONSTERS BEFORE, SHE MUST HAVE MADE THEM STRONGER. YOU’LL NEED ALL THE HELP YOU CAN GET.” ANAlog agreed with her ‘nephew’.

“There’s so many of them though… we should split up to search for them. Louis and ANAlog can go east, Mecchan can go west and I’ll go northwest. That pyramid looks like it’ll be tough.” Gan-chan suggested, holding up her frying pan.

Mecchan looked at her teammates. They were beginning to remind her of her old teammates. When did she start becoming good friends with them? She started to tear up a little, before wiping her tears away.

“Thank you. That sounds like a good plan! Let’s get out there and save some faces!” Mecchan shouted.

—

After a while of searching the easternmost part of Neksdor, Louis and ANAlog decided to look in the cave yet again. Perhaps one of the faces ended up there?

“Let’s see… faces… faces…” Louis looked around before stumbling on a mysterious-looking painting. “”Nothing here but this boring old painting.”

ANAlog looked at the painting more carefully. Faces didn’t usually belong on mountains. And this one looked just like…

Suddenly the painting rose up and started attacking the two.

“So Mecchi can put faces on paintings now! Brilliant! Just what we wanted!” Louis snarked, preparing his spear.

“LESS TALK, MORE ACTION. WE HAVE A FACE TO SAVE.” ANAlog stated bluntly, while getting out some sort of holographic tablet. “I’VE PREPARED A PROGRAM THAT CAN ALTER MOLECULES. ALL I NEED TO DO IS TWEAK THESE A LITTLE BIT AND…”

ANAlog’s program managed to somehow deal a decent amount of damage to the painting.

Louis shrugged it off as some more sciencey stuff he didn’t understand and prepared to whisper to the painting. Whatever it was he whispered, it lowered the painting’s guard.

ANAlog used that as the perfect opportunity to shake her test tube and pour the contents all over the painting. After a few rounds of this and a lot of slapping coming from the painting, it was defeated and the face flew back to Neksdor.

“Well, that was easy.” Louis laughed, before noticing a weird jewel on the ground. “What’s this weird thing?” He picked it up and gave it to ANAlog. “You go and figure it out. I know nothing about sciencey stuff.”

—

Mecchan was wandering around the desert, with her knife in her hand. “Come on, face… come out, come out, wherever you are…”

Suddenly she found herself stepping into a nice bit of shade. “You know, I could use a break…” She started relaxing in the shade before looking up and realising that it was a cobra monster with the little boy’s face on.

She jumped up in surprise, before preparing to fight.

Mecchan immediately got the first attack in. She was lucky she was fast with this new class. And it dealt a pretty decent amount of damage. This fight should be over pretty quickly.

Well, it would be, but the cobra monster suddenly called in a smaller, weaker cobra for backup. Perhaps this fight wouldn’t be as quick as she thought.

She swung her knife only to find it hit all the enemies at once. Maybe, just maybe, if she swung harder…

The cobras all attacked her. She was pretty badly hurt.

All of a sudden, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a banana she’d been saving. She didn’t know why, but she felt a weird urge to eat it.

After eating it, all of her injuries were suddenly gone! Who could have grown such a banana?

After leaping back into action, a stronger attack against all of them was enough to finish them off!

Upon victory, Mecchan noticed a weird jewel in the ground. She picked it up and put it in her bag. She had no idea why, but she had a feeling it might come in handy somehow.

“Well, I guess that’s that! I hope the others do well!” Mecchan smiled.

—

Gan-chan was… not doing so well. On the way to the pyramid, she had almost gotten eaten by a Venus Mii Trap. After breaking free, she severely beat it to a pulp with her frying pan in a panicked frenzy.

With the pyramid in sight, she head towards it.

 

Unbeknownst to her, Mecchi was watching her from a distance, holding Swoley’s face up. “A Pyramid. The perfect place to put my latest project! I wonder how she’ll fare against it…”


	11. The Great Pharaoh

Mecchan, ANAlog and Louis had been waiting in Neksdor Town for a while. A face had flown in from the pyramid, but nothing else had been heard from Gan-chan.

“We haven’t heard from Gan-chan in a while… I hope she’s okay.” Mecchan said.

“And what are we supposed to do with these, anyway?” Louis asked, holding up the jewels they’d collected.

“PERHAPS THEY HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE PYRAMID. WE SHOULD GO OVER AND INVESTIGATE.” ANAlog suggested.

“Good idea!” Mecchan exclaimed, getting ready to head out. “And if we run into trouble, I found out something about these bananas we end up with so often.”

—

Mecchan and the others finally got to the pyramid to find another jewel in the sand. “Did Gan-chan leave this there after she got that face back?” She asked, picking the jewel up.

“Weird. She doesn’t seem like the type that would do that.” Louis pointed out, looking very confused.

“THERE IS A DOOR OVER THERE.” ANAlog pointed to a door near the end of the pyramid. “I WONDER IF WE’LL FIND GAN-CHAN IN THERE.”

The group got to the door. There were four slots to place objects in.

“Hey! They look just like the jewels we picked up!” Mecchan said, looking at the jewels. “But we only have three of them…”

“I HAVE DETECTED TWO FACES SOMEWHERE BEHIND US.” ANAlog suddenly stated, pulling up some sort of face detecting radar.

“Maybe they have the last jewel!” Louis suggested, before the group ran in the direction of ANAlog’s face radar.

“Then we can open the door and see what’s behind it!” Mecchan smiled.

ANAlog suddenly stood perfectly still. “MECCHAN. YOUR FRIEND GAN-CHAN IS BEHIND THE DOOR. SHE HAS BEEN CAPTURED BY THE GREAT PHARAOH OF THE PYRAMID.”

Mecchan jumped in surprise. “ANAlog? Why are you saying that all of a sudden?”

ANAlog jumped in surprise too. “I… DON’T KNOW. IT WAS AS IF SOME COSMIC FORCE WAS TELLING ME WHAT TO SAY.”

Mecchan stared in awe. “Wow, I wish I could do that…” She then changed her expression to that of concern. “But still… The Great Pharaoh can capture Gan-chan? He must be powerful… We have to get the door open and save her!”

The group finally found the faces they needed to save. They were stuck on a sword and a shield.

“Alright, you punks! Give us those faces and the last jewel we need!” Louis grinned, holding up his spear and driving it into the sword.

“Nice one, Louis! Looks like you dealt a lot of damage!” Mecchan smiled, before getting stabbed by the sword. “Ah! Hang on! I got this!” Mecchan grabbed her banana and ate it while ANAlog prepared to whack the sword with her flask. But the shield blocked the attack for the sword.

As the battle went on, they found their attacks did less damage to the shield than they did to the sword.

“So the sword is a glass cannon and the shield is a defensive wall. How predictable.” Louis smirked, preparing a dark magic attack with his spear. “But this is not!” Louis then drove his spear into the ground and a dark pitchfork rose from the ground underneath the shield and stabbed it, dealing heavy damage.

“GOOD JOB. NOW I CAN FINISH THEM OFF.” ANAlog started shaking her test tube very violently, then she took the cap off and spilt the liquid all over the sword and shield, defeating them instantly.

“WHOA!” Mecchan yelled in awe. “That was amazing, ANAlog!”

“Hmph! I helped a bit in that fight too…” Louis sulked.

The fourth jewel appeared in the sand. Mecchan picked it up. “That’s the last one! Now let’s head into the door and save Gan-chan!”

As the group walked towards the door, ANAlog stopped again.

“ANAlog? Is the voice whispering to you again?” Mecchan asked.

“I MUST WARN YOU, MECCHAN. THE GREAT PHARAOH IS ANOTHER CREATION OF MECCHI’S AND YOU WERE RIGHT ABOUT HIM BEING POWERFUL. HE IS. IN MORE THAN ONE WAY, EVEN.”

ANAlog and Mecchan then stared at each other before nodding simultaneously and then putting the jewels into the door.

As the jewels lit up, the door opened.

—

Mecchan got to thinking for a bit. “Hey, if all of Mecchi’s monsters have people’s faces, and we’ve saved all but one of them from Neksdor Town, that can only mean that The Great Pharaoh has…”

Right on cue, The Great Pharaoh, who was wearing Swoley’s face, appeared before Mecchan and her team… and so did Gan-chan, who was wearing an unusual hat and… eyeliner?

“Gan-chan! Are you okay? We’re here to save you!” Mecchan exclaimed, readying her knife.

“Don’t bother.” Gan-chan stated bluntly. “I was blinded by the foolish ways of you guys for far too long. Now I finally see who the truly supreme one is. The Great Pharaoh, Swoley!”

Something wasn’t right.

“Gan-chan?” Mecchan was very confused. Had Gan-chan betrayed them? No, she wouldn’t do something like this… would she?

“Oh Great Pharaoh, you don’t need to worry about them, I’ll happily lend you a hand, and a banana or two!” Gan-chan looked extremely cheerful. Very much too cheerful for her.

Louis looked at her face and then put two and two together. “She’s been brainwashed!”

Mecchan looked up. Louis was right. Gan-chan would never say anything like that so cheerfully. “Gan-chan, snap out of it!” Mecchan shouted, hoping her words would get through to her.

But Gan-chan wouldn’t listen.

“Oh no… what do I do?” Mecchan started crying.

All of a sudden, a light shone behind the main group. Mecchan’s amulet started glowing again.

“Mecchan. Only you can hear me. It’s me, Kurie! You have to lure Gan-chan into the light! It’ll get rid of the curse!” Kurie spoke from the amulet.

With no time to lose, Mecchan kept dodging The Great Pharaoh’s attacks. “Louis! ANAlog! Try to knock her into the light!” she yelled to her friends.

Louis and ANAlog understood and started to fight Gan-chan with no intent of hurting her just to get her moving. But it was a lot harder than it sounded. No matter what they did, they just couldn’t get her to move. It was at this point Mecchan decided to finally stop dodging and try to actually attack the Great Pharaoh.

Upon Mecchan dealing damage, Gan-chan turned around and head towards the Great Pharaoh to offer a banana. Louis took that as an opportunity to charge into her and knock her straight into the light.

Upon being knocked into the light, Gan-chan collapsed and her hat and eyeliner vanished.

Mecchan sighed in relief, but while she was distracted, the Great Pharaoh rammed into her and hurt her to the point she could no longer stand. Ouch… so much for being able to dodge her way out of everything…

Gan-chan then got out of the light and looked furious. She was filled with rage that the Great Pharaoh would try to control her and then, to add insult to injury, hurt her friend. She prepared her frying pan and… started cooking something?

Upon finishing her cooking, she walked over to Mecchan and offered her the food. “Hey. It’s more than just bananas that can help with that.”

Mecchan then ate the food and was feeling ready to fight again. All together, Mecchan, Gan-chan, Louis and ANAlog prepared an attack towards the Great Pharaoh… and defeated the monster and rescued Swoley’s face!


	12. Not Again!

Mecchan, Gan-chan, Louis and ANAlog were wandering east from Neksdor Town. Everyone had their faces back and the town was peaceful once again. Not only that, Swoley seemed to have gotten a job working for Griselda, so his life had fully changed for the better.

As the team head out, their path was blocked by a pile of rocks.

“Well, what now?” Mecchan asked in frustration.

“Oh come on!” Gan-chan exclaimed. She had a bad headache from being brainwashed earlier and just wanted to get to the inn as fast as she could.

“DO NOT WORRY. I WILL GET RID OF THIS OBSTACLE.” ANAlog’s eyes turned red as she lifted up her flask.

Louis, meanwhile, noticed someone rushing towards them. “Uh, I don’t think that’ll be necessary, ANAlog.”

The group then turned around. It was Swoley, flying towards them on his cloud. “Um… wait… I, uh, forgot to tell you about those! Sorry! B-but I can help with that! Just watch!”

Swoley then took in a deep breath, then blew a wind so strong, it pushed the rocks away, revealing the path Mecchi took to the east. Then he floated back to town.

“Wow, he’s even more timid than Melody…” Mecchan said under her breath.

Louis happened to hear what she said. “Who’s Melody?”

Mecchan jumped in surprise of anyone actually hearing what she said.

ANAlog was quick to scold Louis for butting in. “KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S BUSINESS, LOUIS.”

—

Back at the inn, Gan-chan was resting from that hellish day she just had, while Louis and ANAlog were discussing what they’d do the next day.

Mecchan, on the other hand, was laying in her bed, thinking about what just happened. Gan-chan was the only one who knew about what happened to Mecchan’s friends back in Greenhorne. Should she tell the others?

She looked at them from her open door, and saw how serious they seemed to be getting.

No, Mecchan thought. Telling them can wait. She didn’t want to worry them any more.

She then closed her eyes and went to sleep.

—

That night, out of pure spite, Mecchi went over to the inn and grabbed Gan-chan, Louis and ANAlog.

“Thought you could destroy The Great Pharaoh? One of my most powerful monsters? Well, too bad your friends won’t help you now! Oh, and have you gotten used to those new powers? Too bad!”

Mecchi then cast her dark spell again and fled with Mecchan’s friends.

—

The next morning, Mecchan woke up. She was shocked to find that her powers and outfits had all vanished. She then quickly ran around the inn to look for her friends. The inn was empty.

Oh no.

It happened again.

Mecchan collapsed to her knees in a corner and started crying. What was she thinking?! She should have told them! Why did she decide not to? If she’d have told them, they would have prepared for this! Now they were gone and it was her fault!

“Mecchan? Mecchan, can you hear me?”

Of course Kurie was there.

“Kurie, why didn’t you wake us up! This was important!” Mecchan yelled angrily at the goddess.

“Believe me, I tried to this time, but it seems Mecchi’s magic was blocking me from doing so. I think she put a curse on this place while she was, uh… doing her thing.” Kurie explained. She sounded a lot more serious this time.

“So it really was my fault…” Mecchan sighed.

“Don’t worry, you can still save them! I’ve located where she’s taken them at last! They’re at a volcanic land called Karkaton, which lies just past the mystical Realm of the Fey. And lucky for you, you’re just about to head right there!” Kurie explained. “But right now, you need some more powers. Uh… this is the only one I had left to give to anyone. I hope you like dresses!”

Mecchan was about to say something when her clothes magically turned into a beautiful dress and a tiara. She was also holding a fan in one hand.

“And I’ve talked to three other people. You will need help getting past the fantastic creatures in this new town.” Kurie told Mecchan,

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Considering what happened the last couple of times…” Mecchan sighed.

And with that, Kurie was gone. Of course she was.

There was no way Mecchan would let this happen again. She would tell the next allies what happened to her friends immediately upon meeting them.

—

Meanwhile, in a dark, hot place, Gan-chan, Louis and ANAlog woke up.

“Ugh.. where are we?” Gan-chan groaned.

“I CANNOT TELL WHERE WE ARE.” ANAlog pointed out.

“Hey! Who are those people?” Louis noticed three other people somewhere in the direction he was pointing in.

The group walked over to those people.

“Hey, do you three know where this is?” Gan-chan asked them.

The tall one jumped in surprise. The red one looked awful, like she was melting.

The girl in white looked up at the others.

“Sorry, we have no idea either. All we know is that the Dark Lord took us here.”

“That would explain why we’re here…” Gan-chan sighed.

“IT APPEARS THE RED STRAWBERRY-LIKE ONE IS MELTING. ALLOW US TO HELP YOU.” ANAlog looked over at the red one and poured a blue liquid over her, cooling her down.

“Thank you, uh, what are your names?” the red one asked.

“I’m Ganko, but friends call me Gan-chan. The idiot boy in red is Louis and the scientist girl is ANAlog.” Gan-chan said.

“I’m Strawberry! The girl in white is called Yuki and the tall girl in purple is called Melody!” Strawberry smiled.

“Wait, did you say Melody?” Louis asked. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know someone named Mecchan, would you?”

Melody suddenly turned and gasped in surprise. “Mecchan’s okay?”

Louis then approached Melody closer. “Yeah! At least she was when I last saw her!”

“So you guys are Mecchan’s friends? That means she’s likely going to be working even harder to find and rescue you.” Gan-chan said.

“We should work hard to get ourselves out of here too!” Yuki suggested. “It’s not fair to make her do all the work!”

“Good idea!” Louis exclaimed. “Come on, guys! Let’s do this!”


	13. Don't worry, I'm here

Mecchan walked into the Realm of the Fey and instantly noticed something unusual about it. The plants were huge. A tomato was half her height, and she was pretty tall. The only person she could recall being taller than her was Melody.

After wandering around the Realm of the Fey for a while, she ran into some… unusual looking enemies. One of them looked like a piece of dandelion fluff with an eye attached to it, one looked like a giant tomato with a mouth, and… what the hell was that other thing?! It looked hideous, like a turkey with a mouth attached to its oversized butt!

Mecchan quickly whacked all of these enemies with her fan, hoping to get it over and done with as quickly as possible. She managed to take the former two enemies down easily but the latter was a lot harder to deal with. To add insult to injury, it decided to fart in her face. And she did not like that one bit.

One savage beating later, Mecchan made her way back to the inn. She took a shower and went to bed, hoping that encounter would be wiped from her memory.

—

The next morning, the doorbell rang. Mecchan knew what was coming and she already prepared what she would say to tell this next ally. She quickly rushed to the door, opened it and prepared to greet them.

At first, it seemed like there was nobody there, but then she heard a “Hi!” coming from below. She turned her head down.

The new ally was a tiny little girl who looked like a doll, wearing an outlandish pastel outfit with cat ears and a tail. Mecchan was completely speechless.

“I’m Nekokayou! My name is spelt with a colon and a 3! Just like my face! Are you Mecchan, nya?” the tiny girl asked.

“Y-yeah…” Mecchan shook with worry. What should she do? She wasn’t expecting this.

She quickly put on a fake smile and started asking questions about her new ally. “Uh… :3, how old are you?”

“I’m 5 years old, nya!” :3 said, with the biggest smile on her face.

Mecchan froze in pure shock. This new ally, someone who would be helping her, and who she has planned to tell about what happened to her last few allies… was only 5 years old?!

“K-Kurie! Are you sure this is okay? This is a child! Are you sure she can handle this?” Mecchan asked Kurie.

“I mean Strawberry is even younger. She’s only four.” Kurie pointed out.

Mecchan completely lost all words. Was this goddess really as benevolent as she claimed to be?

:3 then tugged on Mecchan’s dress. “Don’t worry, nya! I may not look it but I’m strong! I can help you beat any enemies, nya!”

Mecchan then looked at :3, and the pure, eager expression on her face. She didn’t have the heart to tell her about the others. She didn’t have the heart to turn her down.

“Okay, but promise me you’ll be careful.” Mecchan told her as they both head out together.

—

After a while of fighting enemies, Mecchan and :3 had already formed a bond. :3 was right. She was a lot stronger than she looked. But there was a downside. Her defenses were seriously lacking. Mecchan had to be there to protect her from enemy attacks.

Out of the corner of her eye, Mecchan spotted a familiar face in the distance.

“Albanus!” Mecchan ran over to Albanus excitedly.

“Ah, Mecchan! I’ve been looking for you, actually.” Albanus smiled.

“Thank goodness you’re alright. I was worried about you.” Mecchan sighed in relief.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. All thanks to you. Thank you for bringing me back to Neksdor Town and helping them out with the Swoley problem for me. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble.” Albanus said.

Mecchan then told Albanus all about what happened while he was away.

“I see, so Mecchi attacked but you managed to save everyone. And you even showed Swoley the error of his ways. I’m impressed. I didn’t even think that was possible. Every time someone tried to confront him about it, he would just run away.” Albanus explained.

“But it turns out the reason for that is he’s very shy.” Mecchan smiled.

“By the way, Mecchan…” Albanus asked Mecchan a question she really didn’t want to have to answer. “This is the second time I’ve seen you with a new team. Or, single ally in this case. Did… something happen?”

Mecchan froze. She didn’t want to say it. She didn’t want to put pressure on :3 or worry Albanus. So after a while, her face shifted to another fake smile.

“Don’t worry about them, everything’s fine!” lied Mecchan. “Anyway, it was good seeing you! Let’s head further east, :3!”

Mecchan then ran over to a little elf village just east of them while Albanus stared. Something was up, he thought.

—

“Elven Retreat…” Mecchan read the sign above the village. “Sounds like a good place to go for directions!” This forest was very big, so some directions would come in pretty handy. As they entered the village they saw that it was populated by both humans and fantasy creatures like witches and elves.

They approached a human girl with long black hair. “Excuse me, do you know the way to Karkaton?” Mecchan asked her.

The girl turned around. Something about her face looked oddly familiar. “Uh, sure. Karkaton is beyond that door over there, but you’ll need the Daiyousei Sisters to open it. It’s sealed with a spell to keep evil intruders out. And I haven’t seen them all day, so you could be waiting for a while.”

Mecchan sighed. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. “Thank you anyway. I suppose I could wait for a while.” she said. “Sorry for causing you trouble, uh, what’s your name?”

“Bara. And you are?”

“I’m Mecchan. This is :3.” Mecchan replied.

“Oh, so you’re the Mecchan my sister wrote to me about!” Bara suddenly looked excited.

Mecchan was surprised. Nobody in her team ever mentioned having a sister. “Your sister?”

“Yeah, you know Yuki, right? Well, Yuki’s actually my twin sister!” Bara explained. “Where is Yuki, by the way?”

This finally broke Mecchan. She started crying. And then she cried some more. And then she just fell to her knees and cried even more. She wanted to see Yuki again. She wanted to see everyone else again. She didn’t want to have to subject a five year old to worries about being kidnapped.

“Mecchan? What’s wrong, nya? Are you okay?” :3 looked sad and started shaking Mecchan gently.

Then Mecchan felt another hand on her shoulder. “Mecchan, I knew something was troubling you. What’s wrong?”

It was Albanus. Of course he followed her. And now she had to worry him, :3 AND Bara about her friends being kidnapped. She hated this. She just wanted it to stop.

Out of nowhere, she felt her bag being pulled at.

“I did tell you that this would come in handy at some point.” Albanus said, holding the calming fruit she put in her bag so long ago in front of her face.

Sniffing a little, she ate the calming fruit. Surprisingly, those things turn out to last a long time.

After a short while, she was feeling much calmer. She had to tell everyone while she was calm. Otherwise she wouldn’t be able to at all.

After Mecchan explained what happened to everyone, Bara looked concerned. “I see. That’s why you want to get to Karkaton so bad, huh? Man, I wish I was as good at magic as Yuki, then I’d be able to help you save her.”

“I’m sorry for not telling you guys sooner. I didn’t want :3 to worry about being kidnapped, or Albanus to worry about me, or Bara to be upset over her sister being kidnapped.” Mecchan apologised.

“It’s okay, nya! If the Dark Lord tries to capture me, I’ll punch her in the face!” :3 exclaimed cheerfully.

“Don’t worry, Mecchan. You said they’re in Karkaton, right? It’s not very far, and it only requires unsealing through the Daiyousei sisters. I’m sure you’ll be able to get there and save them.” Albanus said. “I’d help you, but there are other people who need help too. Sorry to abandon you like that, but someone has to help them.”

“Okay, I hope I’ll see you soon!” Mecchan smiled again as Albanus left. Everybody took that better than she thought they would.

“Yeah, as soon as the Daiyousei sisters get back, I’ll explain everything and they’ll gladly help you get through!” Bara exclaimed.

All of a sudden, they heard the sound of a little girl crying.

“Nya! Over there!” :3 pointed in the direction of the crying and Mecchan followed her to see a little fairy girl with blonde hair who wore green.

“Are you okay? What happened?”Mecchan approached the little girl.

“Th-the Dark Lord… my sisters…” the girl started blurting out between sobs.

“It’s okay, calm down. What happened to your sisters?” Mecchan asked the girl calmly.

The girl then explained that the Dark Lord was fighting her and her sisters. They managed to drive him off and seal away the eastern entrance but then her sisters got kidnapped by monsters.

“Hey, it’s okay. We can help you find your sisters.” Mecchan told the little girl.

“Yeah! We can fight those monsters and get your sisters back, nya! What’s your name?” :3 asked.

“S-Sanko. Sanko Daiyousei.” Sanko told the others.

“So you’re one of the Daiyousei sisters! I guess that makes this two birds with one stone!” Mecchan exclaimed.

As Mecchan and :3 started to head out, Sanko stopped them.

“Wait. I should come with you. I know what they look like, and I have a bow and arrow, so I can help you fight them.” Sanko said in a much slower voice this time. “So please take me with you!”

“Okay, then let’s go and find them, nya!” :3 exclaimed.

And so the group set off to find Sanko’s sisters.


End file.
